Hanoi Hell

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<hr> Some people get bad experiences while they travel, I get that.<hr></blockquote>
Yes, you did.

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<hr>mrmookie: So now you discriminate against heavy people too? <hr></blockquote>
"Too"? Please name any group that I discriminate against. Also, I wasn't criticizing you or any other overweight person, I was just trying to figure out if it was you that I poked and rammed.

Ignorant and stubborn Vietnamese
I yelled at him,
The a$$h*le
the snakey man!!
What's wrong with these people,
They're rude, crude and uncouth
they don't really speak English
sour-faced and negative attitude
They either poke (if you're lucky), shove or ram you aside if you happened to walk a little slower.

I'm as polite as possible!!! :-)

couldnt care less about your mobile or any bad experiences you had

i had a wonderful time in hanoi, nothing got stolen, i got smiles back, people were helpful, i never got rammed by someone etc

maybe its your attitude ? think abt it, simple maths, most of the people get nice experiences, so minority cannot be right.

happy travels

Now you will be able to write to a magazine about the 'Thorn Tree Hell' you experienced!!

I can just hear it 'What happened to the famous Thorn Tree hospitality that was touted by everyone?" :)

Let's assume it is not a troll:

1) You assume that your phone was stolen. You provide no evidence. Somebody stood near you, therefore it must have been him? But you do not really know when the phone was stolen, if at all. Would a thief really take a phone but leave money and a camera? If I was shouted at and was innocent I would shout back too.

2) The shopkeeper did nothing. Maybe he saw nothing as nothing had happened.

3) The Hanoians don't look you in the eyes? Joke surely. The arched eyes and big smile is the Hanoi way.

It seems to me that you were careless with your phone and want to blame somebody. Then afterwards any tiny incident was magnified to enforce your views on the Hanoi people.

Sorry. Should read 'arched eyebrows...'

You know I only wish you'd encountered the gorgeous woman and her little boy that gave my toddler his toy(imagine this little kid with bugger all giving away his toy to a small foreigner with his mum smiling on), the old man that jumped off his bike to help my sister and I across the road one night with a smile and a wave as he ran back to resume his journey, the ancient old shoemender who mended my shoe with string from his bag on the street one day joking with me in sign language and broken English about how the shoes were made in China," no good"(he really ripped me off -charged a whole 50c) And on and on......yes we had a rude taxi-driver and the street seller who physically shooed me away when I questioned why he wanted to charge me $5 for cigarette papers(actually later it ocurred to me that the things were quite possibly imported and that was why) but big deal, thats what happens in a bustling city....
If its possible (or wise)to generalise about Hanoians in the length of time you and I were there then for me one thing I liked was the lack of obsequiousness and servitude that exists in some tourist destinations-what a relief, real people!
Sounds like you had a bad experience with your phone and didnt quite recover-its the only event that seems to warrant the intensity of your feelings.........I mean surly ticket-collectors;if they didnt exist you'd have to invent them,such archetypes they are.

"From the moment we stepped on the plane (AirAsia), you get ignorant and stubborn Vietnamese"

The mindset was there long before she lost her phone!

#18 Yes sadly I guess youre right.

Nobody here (well, the regulars at least) will accuse of me of knee-jerk reactions anytime somebody says something bad about Vietnam, I try to be objective most times. Having said that, the OP is the most biased rude, derogatory, and arrogant post I have seen in a long time.

Vietnamese are rude? Funny you should say that: after many years in Vietnam, I went to KL the first time last year and thought that SOME of the Malaysians were incredibly rude.

People did not look you in the eye? As an Asian you should know that it is considered impolite to look people straight in the face, it has nothing to do with shiftiness. Alternatively, they might have been embarrassed about your behavior and did not want to show it.

I was going to go on but I am about to lose it, which would be a first for me:-( Suffice it to say that I am glad that you had such horrible experiences; it makes it likely that you will never come back here which should be a Godsend for you, residents, and the Vietnamese public in general.